


rain or shine

by verynotconcise



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, friends to.. still friends, not much else tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 16:46:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12258204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verynotconcise/pseuds/verynotconcise
Summary: “I’ll never understand how Chanyeol puts up with you. If this is how you’re like when he’s not here for a few hours, then I don’t want to imagine how you’ll be like when he gets attached.”Kyungsoo snorts from his seat next to Jongdae. “You mean when they finally get together?”or: Baekhyun realises that he needs better friends.





	rain or shine

Baekhyun flicks his pen towards the edge of the table, watching it roll unevenly until it tips over at the edge. Sigh, another fail. Before Baekhyun can kick Jongdae’s chair, his friend turns around in his seat and throws a dirty look at Baekhyun.

“No.” he says fiercely, turning back before Baekhyun even gets to open his mouth.

This time, Baekhyun does kick Jongdae’s chair. When Jongdae doesn’t turn around, Baekhyun pouts and kicks Jongdae’s chair again, even harder this time. Even so, his friend (or maybe not anymore) resolutely ignores Baekhyun, leaving him to glare daggers into the back of his head before he deflates. That was his last working pen that had rolled down his table below Jongdae’s chair, and there was no way he was going to get work done now. Not that he was able to anyway; it was history period and they were given free time to discuss their pairwork, and his partner was.. well.

 

_The door opened just as Baekhyun stepped on the front porch of Chanyeol’s house. However, it wasn’t a lanky teenage boy that Baekhyun saw approaching him, but the mother of the said teen._

_“Baekhyun, I’m sorry but you’ll have to go to school alone today.” She explains apologetically, “Chanyeol’s running a high fever.”_

 

Baekhyun sinks down and rests his head on his arms crossed on the table, pulling out his phone from his back pocket and scrolls through his conversation with Chanyeol.

**Baekhyun**  
0725: i heard from your mum that you’re sick!! ⊙︿⊙  
0725: get well soon chanyeol!!  
0726: i’ll drop by later to pass your homework to you~

**Chanyeol**  
1041: thanks baek ^^ have fun in school

Baekhyun sighs. He honestly expected a bit more messages from Chanyeol since Chanyeol wasn’t one to be cooped up at home. But Baekhyun guesses it was expected, he was running a high fever after all. Maybe he’ll just send Chanyeol some messages to check in on him.

**Baekhyun**  
13:30: school is so boring today!! ( ≧Д≦)  
13:31: i think jongdae is ignoring me too  
13:31: i kicked his chair and he isn’t responding  
13:37: what should i do? (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ  
13:52: chanyeol?  
14:20: ੨( ･᷄ ︵･᷅ )ｼ

Baekhyun looks at the digital clock on his phone.

“Three fifteen.” He huffs to himself. “Fifteen minutes more. Fifteen minutes more. You can do this, Byunbaek.”

Immersed in his own thoughts, he gets a rude shock when Jongdae slams down a pile multicoloured pens and highlighters on his table.

“And thank God that it’s only fifteen more minutes. You’re insufferable, seriously.” Jongdae deadpans, folding his arms across his chest.

“I’m not “insufferable”, I’m _bored_.”

“If that’s what you want to call it, sure.” Jongdae drawls, still looking unimpressed. “I’ll never understand how Chanyeol puts up with you. If this is how you’re like when he’s not here for a few hours, then I don’t want to imagine how you’ll be like when he gets attached.”

Kyungsoo snorts from his seat next to Jongdae. “You mean when they finally get together?”

“What? No-”

“Shit, Kyungsoo. Don’t remind me. They’ll be even more obnoxious together.” Jongdae cuts Baekhyun off.

“Which _won’t_ happen, because Chanyeol doesn’t like me.” Baekhyun sulks, eyes narrowing at the whiteboard. “Unfortunately.”

Baekhyun misses the smug and knowing looks that Jongdae and Kyungsoo exchange.

Jongdae takes pity on Baekhyun and pats the crown of Baekhyun’s head fondly. “There there. Don’t lose hope yet. I’ve never seen a more disgusting couple than you guys anyway.”

“He’s right, you guys are disgusting.” Kyungsoo confirms.

“Shut it, guys. We all know that he likes that senior, Dara.”

“And yet he never waits for her night study classes to end so that he can accompany her to eat instant ramyun at the convenience store. Unlike someone I happen to know.”

“He said he was trying to bulk. It’s normal. We’re a bunch of hungry students.”

“He certainly never waited for me, or even invited me along.” Jongdae grumbles.

“And I also don’t remember Chanyeol ever dedicating a song at our school festival to Dara.”

“That’s because I’m his “best friend”, remember?”

“I don’t think that Minseok would ever sing ‘Won’t Go Home Without You’ to me.”

“Or how about how he always shares and holds his umbrella for you?”

Baekhyun sits up, starting to feel his face flush with embarrassment. “It’s only because I keep forgetting to buy myself an umbrella. Plus, he’s taller than me. If I held the umbrella, he’d be hunching over.”

Which, well, was not exactly a lie _persay_. Yeah, Baekhyun keeps forgetting to buy himself an umbrella.. intentionally. He’d be lying if he said that he didn’t enjoy having a legitimate excuse to cling onto Chanyeol. Baekhyun believed that Chanyeol enjoyed these moments too. Unless he misinterpreted the way that Chanyeol not only never rejected his touches, but also smiles at him and pulls him closer by draping his long and boney arm around his shoulder.. which- unlikely.

“Yeah, well. Whatever.” Jongdae waves dismissively. “Speaking of which, it looks like it’s about to rain. Do you have an umbrella?”

Baekhyun looks over his shoulder at the windows in their classroom and sees heavy dark clouds gathering. Well, shit. First Chanyeol skips school and leaves Baekhyun alone, then Jongdae and Kyungsoo team up to tease Baekhyun about his unrequited feelings, and now it’s about to rain and Baekhyun doesn’t have an umbrella. Could this day could get any worse?

“No.”

“Thought so.” Kyungsoo says. Jongdae and Kyungsoo share a high five while Baekhyun wills them to melt under the heat of his glare. It doesn’t work.

“I hate you guys.”

When the school bell rings, Baekhyun practically flies out of the gates with how fast he runs. But instead of taking a left turn down to Chanyeol’s street, he keeps running straight towards the neighbourhood shophouses.

When he reaches the shop selling herbal soup, Baekhyun is breathing heavily and bent over clutching his knees. The woman looks over the counter equal parts worried and puzzled.

“I need chicken ginseng soup. Takeaway.” Baekhyun finally says. The woman throws him one last weird look before she goes to prepare it.

And as always, Baekhyun spoke too soon. It turns out that his day _could_ actually get worse.

He’s on his way to Chanyeol’s house with the soup clutched carefully to his chest his one hand under it to support its weight when it starts to pour without prior warning. Since he’s no longer on the main street where there were bus stops and small sheltered areas where he could take refuge, so his only option was to keep going.

Baekhyun bends over the container as much as he can and makes a cautious dash to Chanyeol’s house.

When he’s at Chanyeol’s doorstep, he rings the doorbell repeatedly. The rain was starting to soak into his underwear and socks, which was really gross. He lifts up his foot and puts it down experimentally, feeling a wet squelch and oh wow, that is really gross.

Baekhyun starts to press the doorbell again, borderline abusing it when the door opens slowly and a messy mop of hair pops out of the gap.

“Baek?” Chanyeol croaks, his eyes are red and his face is pale and is that snot running down his nose?

There’s another gust of wind and Baekhyun is done waiting for an invitation, pushing Chanyeol aside and hastily removes his shoes at the door before he slams it shut.

“Baek, what’re you doing here?”

“About to nurse you back to health, obviously.”

“You can’t be here, I’m sick.” Chanyeol retorts, trying to look as serious as he could while blowing his nose.

“Which is why I’m here. I hate when you’re sick, so you have to get better quickly.” Baekhyun says, depositing the container on the living room table. Planting his hands on Chanyeol’s shoulders, Baekhyun directs his friend back to his room and pushes him back to onto the bed.

“Stay.” he instructs.

“Wait,” Chanyeol grabs onto Baekhyun’s hand before he can move away. Baekhyun shoots him a quizzical look. “you’re drenched. Let me find some dry clothes for you to change into first.”

“Chanyeol, it’s-”

“Baekhyun, please let me do this for you. If you fall sick because of me, I don’t know how I’d feel.”

Baekhyun looks down at his feet, awkwardly shuffling his feet around. He can feel his heartbeat pick up, and despite being soaked he doesn’t feel cold at all. It’s warm.

“Here.” Chanyeol is holding out a set of clothes and towel for him. Baekhyun takes it with a grateful nod and goes to the bathroom to change. In the set of clothes, there’s a pair of Chanyeol’s old basketball shorts and his oversized gray hoodie. When Baekhyun pulls on the hoodie, it ends just below his mid thigh and the sleeves flap when he moves his hands around. It’s ridiculously oversized on him but he likes it. It smells like Chanyeol and the warmth it envelops him in is not too far from the actual person’s.

Baekhyun keeps his clothes in his bag and goes to the kitchen to pour Chanyeol a glass of water, as well as to transfer the soup into a pan to be heated over the stove. While waiting for the soup to be heated, he goes over what Jongdae and Kyungsoo said earlier and feels his face flush again.

He slaps both his cheeks twice. “Don’t imagine things. Don’t let Kyungsoo and Jongdae plant stupid unattainable ideas into your head.”

He turns off the gas when he sees steam start to rise and carefully transfers it over into a bowl.

He pushes open Chanyeol’s door carrying a tray and sees his tall friend sprawled on the bed, sweat droplets on his face and neck glistening when light from the corridor spills into the room.

“Chanyeol, wake up. I bought food for you.”

With a little help from Baekhyun, Chanyeol sits propped up by his pillow and lethargically starts to drink the soup.

“Did you buy this?” Chanyeol asks, his voice cracking.

“Yeah. I don’t want to try cooking this for the first time and risk you getting worse, so..”

There’s a long pause.

“Thank you, Baekhyun. It’s delicious.” Chanyeol says softly.

“You have to eat this well and get better. I really missed having you around in school, you know.” Baekhyun admits quietly, avoiding Chanyeol's gaze.

“Aw, you said you missed me. That’s cheesy, Baek.”

“Can you blame me? Without you around, there’s no one to disturb in the middle of class.”

“Still, you said you missed me.” Chanyeol snickers. “So cheesy.”

Chanyeol pushes away the now empty bowl and sips on the glass of water.

“I come all the way here just to get teased even more? Life is not fair.”

“Teased even more? Who teased you?” Chanyeol raises an amused brow. Shit. Why did he say that? He should not have said that.

“Ah- I- That’s not important. Shouldn’t you be getting some rest now?” Baekhyun chuckles nervously, standing up from the bed picking up the tray.

“Baek-”

“Goodnight, Chanyeol.” Baekhyun says, pointedly ignoring his friend’s look of curiosity and walks out of the room.

Even if he knew they were all jokes, he doesn’t want Chanyeol to hear them. He’s still too afraid to know what Chanyeol thought of their friends teasing them about being couple-like. Maybe one day he’ll finally be able to do more, and God forbid, even confess.

He washes the dishes quickly and goes to the toilet to find a spare face towel. Baekhyun rinses the towel under running water and wrings it out. With the towel in his hand, Baekhyun sneaks back into Chanyeol’s room where his friend has fallen back asleep. He sets himself on the edge of the bed and begins to dab at the sweat on his friend’s face and neck gently.

Chanyeol frowns in his sleep and twitches slightly, letting out a long groan. Baekhyun flinches and pulls his hand away, too scared to make any other movement. Did he hurt Chanyeol?

Chanyeol opens his eyes slowly, it’s clouded with sleep and unfocused before he finds Baekhyun sitting next to him.

“Did I wake you?” Baekhyun whispers. Chanyeol shakes his head groggily, rolling over to make space between them.

“Cold.”

“Chanyeol, you’re sweating.” Baekhyun points out. Chanyeol shakes his head again, patting the empty space next to him lightly.

“You’re warm. It’s cold.” Chanyeol coughs. Baekhyun wants to be firm in his decision not to join Chanyeol, but when Chanyeol stares at him with that expression like Baekhyun is the only thing he wants, he knew it was futile effort to resist any longer. Baekhyun folds the face towel on Chanyeol’s desk before climbing into the space next to Chanyeol. Chanyeol shifts closer to Baekhyun and throws an arm over him, drawing Baekhyun to his chest.

“Much better.” he whispers contentedly. Baekhyun pokes Chanyeol’s chest.

“If I fall sick because of this, I’m blaming you.”

Chanyeol smiles. “Okay.”

“I’ll spam your phone, too.”

“You already do.”

“And I’ll expect you to do the same for me.”

“We’ll keep exchanging germs and never get better.”

If that means that we get to cuddle then it doesn’t sound so bad, Baekhyun thinks. What he says instead is, “Sleep well, Chanyeol.”

“I will.” Chanyeol replies.

He’s selfish in wanting to keep moments like this to himself, and he might be delusional when he thinks that maybe, just _maybe_ , Chanyeol might like him back as well. Whatever it is, rain or shine, Baekhyun knows that he would do anything to be with Chanyeol- be it as friends, best friends or perhaps something more.

He hopes that Chanyeol feels the same.

**Author's Note:**

> this was very self-indulgent and rushed and 2 hours of singing won't go home without you, lmao. .___.


End file.
